Mini Design Projects: A Hands On Approach To Teaching Instrumentation Courses In Et Programs

Design is the central activity of engineering and the focus of undergraduate engineering education. Effective teaching and learning of underlying engineering science and the principles of engineering design can be readily accomplished in instrumentation courses, through the completion of minidesign projects relative to the measurement of common variables found in engineering systems, such as temperature, pressure, stress, fluid flow, motion, sound, etc. This paper presents and discusses typical examples of highly affordable mini-design projects that have been implemented and used during the instruction of engineering students in a standard introductory instrumentation course in the School of Engineering Technology at Northeastern University. These mini-design projects can be completed within the time constraints inherent to regular academic schedules, and provide students with an appreciation for the realities of engineering practice, in particular, those associated with time and money constrains. This teaching technique blends the perspectives of theoretical discussions in regular lectures and the subtleties encountered in the practice of engineering design. It seeks to develop proficiency through practice guided by concurrent knowledge and the recognizable dimensions and challenges of the engineering product development process. Using this educational approach, class assessment guided by the Technology Criteria 2000 (TC2K) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), effectively reflects satisfactory mastery of knowledge, and the desirable abilities students are expected to demonstrate, as established by TC2K.